Analyst Profile

Shawn P. McCarthy

Research Director

Shawn P. McCarthy is an IDC Government Insights research director. He launched and manages the U.S. Government IT Infrastructure Optimization program, which includes technology recommendations and key cost control proposals for government IT systems. He also issues IDC’s semi-annual U.S. Government IT Spending Guides (federal, state and local) and he created the annual U.S. Federal Line of Business Budget Guide, which tracks detailed spending buy federal department, program and more.

Mr. McCarthy is responsible for analyzing primary end-user data and budget data collected both from officially published sources and through surveys of IT managers in government and university offices. Mr. McCarthy determines IT investment priorities for the public sector and identifies and forecasts emerging technologies and opportunities for both government offices and technology vendors who work with the government.

Mr. McCarthy regularly contributes in the Government IT Infrastructure blog in the IDC Government Insights Community (http://idc-insights-community.com/government). His Twitter handle is Shawn_McCarthy.

He has given presentations in multiple countries and chaired many panel discussions at FOSE, MacWorld and other large IT conferences. As a government employee, he helped build databases and curriculum libraries at The Smithsonian Institution.

Prior to joining IDC Government Insights, Mr. McCarthy served as program manager for Government & Education within IDC's Vertical Industry Research Group. Before that he headed his own IT consulting firm, and served as a group product manager for four years at Lycos, the Internet search engine. He also was a senior editor at Government Computer News and he still writes the monthly Internaut column for GCN.

He graduated magna cum laude from The George Washington University with a Masters degree in educational technology leadership. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism/mass communication from St. Bonaventure University and has a certificate in project management for IT programs. He occasionally teaches graduate-level project management classes.

Mr. McCarthy is frequently quoted by trade publications that are read by government IT mangers, and is the author of two books: Engineering Your Way to Success written for the National Society of Professional Engineers, and The Art of .COMbat: Ancient Wisdom for the Competitive Economy, published by John Wiley & Sons.

Research Authored by Shawn P. McCarthy

Best Practices: A ProveIT Case Study — Missouri Saves Time, Money, and Aggravation with a Hands-Off Approach to Employee PCs Shawn P. McCarthy Jun 2010 - Doc # GI223737      Best Practices This IDC Government Insights report looks at how the State of Missouri's Department of Conservation made significant changes to the way it manages its inventory of personal computers. The Missouri Department of Conservation found a creat ... purchase document

U.S. Federal Government Line of Business Budget Guide, FY09–FY11, with Additional Program Metrics and Activities Shawn P. McCarthy May 2010 - Doc # GI223550      Perspective This IDC Government Insights Perspective accompanies the Line of Business (LOB) Budget Guide pivot table for federal fiscal years 2009 through 2011. The relevant data can be found in the pivot table and other data sources conta ... purchase document

Spending Update: The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Shawn P. McCarthy, Thom Rubel May 2010 - Doc # GI223384      Perspective This IDC Government Insights Perspective provides updated American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) spending, which we previously reported in Capitalizing on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: An Accurate View of A ... purchase document

Accenture 2010 Industry Analyst Event Cushing Anderson, Mukesh Dialani, Gard Little, Catherine Madden, Shawn P. McCarthy, Henry D. Morris, Alexander Motsenigos, Lisa Rowan, Rebecca Segal, Ali Zaidi May 2010 - Doc # 223510      Event Flash This IDC Flash summarizes the key takeaway points from the Accenture 2010 industry analyst event, focusing on Accenture's ambition to exploit the current environment. We caught up with Accenture's senior leadership in Boston re ... purchase document

Methods and Practices: Introducing the "Tagged Data Authority Engine" — Assurance and Data Integrity for Government Agencies and Fusion Centers Shawn P. McCarthy, Carl W. Olofson Apr 2010 - Doc # GI222672      Market Overview This IDC Government Insights report highlights an ongoing problem that is being experienced by the federal government — uncontrolled redundancy and long-term accuracy of data as it is shared across multiple agencies and systems ... purchase document

Oracle/Sun Merger Will Impact Government IT Shawn P. McCarthy Mar 2010 - Doc # lcUS22240010      IDC Link It's clear that federal, state and local governments are closely watching to see what will happen after Oracle’s recent acquisition of Sun Microsystems. Many government IT shops very much need to see the relationship work because government ...

Managing the Merger: Physical and IT Security Shawn P. McCarthy Feb 2010 - Doc # lcUS22224410      IDC Link Here's an interesting question: From a management standpoint, who currently “owns” security at most government facilities? The fact is, that ownership is slowly changing.Most people involved with information technology today are aware that ...

The Proposed 2011 Federal Budget: Lofty Goals Meet Sensible IT Strategy — Can This Marriage Work? Shawn P. McCarthy, Thom Rubel, Adelaide O'Brien Feb 2010 - Doc # GI221984      Perspective This IDC Government Insights Perspective provides an analysis of the information technology portion of the U.S. fiscal year 2011 budget. This week, President Obama sent Congress a $3.8 trillion budget plan that includes a propo ... purchase document

IDC Insights Predictions 2010: Government Thom Rubel, Alison Brooks, Ph.D., Shawn P. McCarthy, Adelaide O'Brien, Jan A. Duffy, Alex S. Kim Jan 2010 - Doc # GI1CAG10      Event Proceeding In this IDC Government Insights web conference, Thom Rubel, (Vice President of Research, IDC Government Insights), Dr. Alison Brooks (Research Director, Public Sector), Jan Duffy (Research Director, EMEA), Alex Kim (Research Di ...

2010 State of the Union:Heating Up IT Investments During a Budget Freeze Shawn P. McCarthy, Adelaide O'Brien, Thom Rubel Jan 2010 - Doc # GI221868      Perspective This IDC Government Insights Perspective provides an analysis of the technologies, solutions, and services that are impacted by President Obama's 2010 State of the Union address and the information technology implications from ... purchase document

More Research authored by Shawn P. McCarthy